1. You can shake water off the grass with a simple drag. I made one out of spare fence mesh and 3 2x4 attached to it on the top. Spaced apart, so that when it goes over humps, mesh follows terrain. I tow it behind my ATV early am, around 9-10, so it shakes all the dew off the grass and then mow in the afternoon. Some drag garden hose, Whatever.
2. You MUST sharpen blades regularly, or it will do nothing better but clump grass clippings in the deck, sort of rolling them into large grass balls, choking mower. Ever so often, stop, turn blades off, then turn them back on. Every time you do so, it shakes deck and what's inside, off. Do it 2-3 times in a row. You WILL leave a large pile of grass behind when you start moving.
3. Here's why you have discharge issue. So do I. So did my 54 raptor and now 60 SD. Their deck sucks. The way discharge is designed, you have large round nook in the right hand corner. All it's doing is to collect clippings, as mower deck is designed to move clippings towards chute. That's fine, except that chute is actually not across the ENTIRE deck side, but only half of it. The rest is clippings collector.
That's the real reason. Next time, buy mower with rectangular deck and chute across the entire side of it. Also, Hustler has metal bar across the chute bottom. Bay far, it is not helping with discharge, but helps to retain clippings inside the deck.
I took Sawzall to mine and cut it open as much as I could, widening chute opening. I am limited by mulching attachment, but I still opened it quite a few inches. Next, I re did the chute cover, as it hangs too low, clogging chute with clippings. I made metal sheet sidewalls, added to cover, so that they hold cover higher up. As the result, I have much less clumping issue but I still ride with a hooked stick on the foot deck. Ever so often, I'll stop, pull cover up and hold it with left hand, while with the right hand, I use stick to remove grass clump in the right chute corner. Takeson average 5-6 passes on severla acres to build it up.
Like I said, it's deck chute design. Simply not right.
